(gentle music)
- My mom was everything you could dream of.
Sometimes I get told,
"you know, you look like lisa,"
And "you act like lisa."
She was an amazing mom,
Amazing daughter, amazing sister.
She was just an all-around amazing person.
I don't think my life will ever be normal
With everything that has happened in my life.
I think I'll always question
If I'm safe and if I can trust people.
There was 13 years where this case was not solved.
I would love people to understand,
In a situation like this,
That there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
This whole story,
It is just too crazy.
None of it could be real because it's too crazy.
(dramatic music)
(gentle music)
- [narrator] for army recruits at fort lee,
This day will shape the rest of their lives.
They're about to begin officer training school.
Among the trainees is lisa gaudenzi.
The 30-year-old has big plans.
- [nancy] lisa wanted to be a judge.
They only take the brightest people out of the class,
And she was happy
That she was going into the service.
- [narrator] by mid-morning,
All the new officer trainees
Have reported to their barracks.
All except one.
- Lisa did not show up for officer training school.
The army immediately classified her as awol.
Being trained in officer training school
Would give her the opportunity
To go to law school through the military
And be an officer in a jag corps.
It was her dream come true.
- [nancy] she wanted to do her time in officers training.
For us not to hear anything, nothing,
We knew something happened at that point.
I was lisa's stepmother.
I was married to her father, joseph.
I treated lisa like she was my daughter.
She was the daughter I never had.
She grew up in new jersey.
Lisa grew up in an influential family,
Very well-to-do.
Her father joe was very well-off with businesses.
Joe had great factories in europe
And multiple beauty shops across the united states.
Had them for quite a few years.
Lisa was very smart.
Her and her sister went to montessori.
They went to school in a rolls royce.
That's how lisa was raised until the divorce.
I don't think lisa or her sister
Were happy with the divorce.
They used to come to atlantic city
And visit their father in the summertime.
Joe was a very doting father.
Joe had told me they had a big pool in the backyard,
And lisa used to love to swim.
At the age of three, she jumped in this pool
And she starts swimming.
She was outgoing when I met her years earlier,
When she was 10.
The older she got, the more ambitious lisa got.
But once she had the car accident,
She became very self-conscious.
- [rachel] as a result of that accident,
She needed a special porcelain dental plate,
And she had a lot of scarring on her face.
- [nancy] she went through the windshield.
And at the age of 16, going to high school, you know,
That's not good for your ego,
Going to school with new scars
Or bandages on your face
And no teeth in the bottom of your mouth.
(gentle music)
When lisa graduated from high school,
She moved down to west palm
To be with her mother and her sister.
They were living down in florida at the time.
She wound up getting a job in an auto body shop.
Most women couldn't be bothered,
But it didn't bother lisa
To get down and dirty, paint the car, sand the car down.
She had no problem doing that.
Lisa's working in the auto body shop
And who's working in there also is jim.
Jim was her boss.
They started to date and one thing led to another.
- [narrator] after a whirlwind romance,
21-year-old lisa and 24-year-old jim burdette
Get married in 1985.
They welcome a baby girl named lea a year later.
- [nancy] lea was born with cystic fibrosis.
It's a lung disease that's incurable.
Your lungs are filled with fluid.
When lea was diagnosed with it back then,
They gave her a four- to five-year span of living.
Over the years, though, with her medications,
Her span of life is a lot longer now.
- [rachel] it caused a lot of difficulties
In the relationship between lisa and jim.
All of her energy and her attention
Was focused on lea and her education,
And the marriage was over.
They were not functioning as a married couple
For a long time
Before they ultimately did get divorced in 1989.
- [narrator] lisa and lea move to virginia,
And that's when lisa
Meets tow truck driver lawrence gaudenzi.
- [nancy] she thought he was good-looking.
He took her out to dinner.
Lisa was, you know, smitten.
- [rachel] lawrence was very involved
In the mormon church and they moved in together
Into a house that was rented to them
By the bishop of that church.
So it was a very quiet, religious, rural area.
- [narrator] once again, lisa falls hard.
- [nancy] lisa said to me, "guess what?"
And I knew what she was gonna say.
That she was pregnant.
She was ecstatic.
- [narrator] lisa and lawrence name their daughter shelby.
They marry shortly after.
- [nancy] lawrence was thrilled.
He wanted a little boy,
But she was a little girl
And he was tickled pink.
Lisa was over the moon.
She's a mother again.
Now she has her two children.
She's extremely happy.
- [narrator] despite having two kids,
Lisa enlists in the army in 1994.
It was the first step towards her dream job.
- [rachel] lisa's goal was to be a lawyer and a judge.
She was going to make that work by joining the army,
Going to school, and becoming a jag judge.
- [narrator] the schedule is so demanding
That lisa sends eight-year-old lea to florida
To live with her grandmother.
Lawrence stays in virginia with their daughter,
Two-year-old shelby.
- Lisa's goal was to be a wife and a mother.
She was gonna make that work with lawrence gaudenzi.
- [narrator] the gaudenzis rent out their basement.
Their tenant helps out with the cooking and cleaning
While lisa works and studies.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] a day passes,
And there's still no sign of lisa.
Military police at fort lee
Start a search for the missing mom.
- [nancy] the mps showed up at lawrence's house
And they also showed up at her mother's house in the keys,
Looking for lisa.
- [rachel] lawrence filed a missing persons report
On lisa with the caroline county sheriff's department.
He told them that he had dropped lisa off
At the bus station in richmond
To go to officer training school
And that was the last time he saw her.
- [narrator] when deputies search lisa's belongings,
They find something
That might explain her disappearance.
Love letters,
Not addressed to lawrence,
But to a man named israel.
- It appears from their letters
That there was a budding romance
Between lisa and israel.
- [woman's voice] "israel, you are still always on my mind.
I look forward to sharing my life with you.
But it is really hard having to wait.
I have waited so long for happiness,
And now I have finally found the man for me
And I can't be with him.
I know we will have plenty of time to be together,
But I hate wasting four months of my life without you.
I have already wasted 30 years.
Every night before I fall asleep,
I think about laying in your arms.
I miss going to sleep with you next to me.
I don't ever want to be away from you
For such a long time again.
Goodnight my love,
Lisa."
(pensive music)
- [tad] she didn't show up for training.
Did she meet someone along the way?
The police really have to keep their minds open
For all possibilities.
She was seemingly moving forward in her life,
Possibly without lawrence.
It was something she clearly wanted to do.
- That's the way lisa was.
She got very swept up in the romance
And the idea of being in love.
- [tad] that was a big red flag
For the investigators on this case.
(gentle music)
- [tad] any romantic interest
Is going to be a person of interest to the police
When someone goes missing.
What was that relationship?
Was it a relationship that was kept secret?
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] the caroline county sheriff's department
May be one step closer to finding lisa gaudenzi.
Love letters suggest
That lisa is having an affair
With a man named israel.
- [doc] it became obvious
That lisa had met an individual down in florida.
She met him on a break that she had
From her military training.
They used to go dancing and things like that,
Which kind of made you wonder
That maybe she had run off with israel.
- [woman's voice] "israel, I can't sleep.
Probably because all I have done
For the past four days is sleep.
Also, because I lay awake thinking of things
I want to ask you
And of things I want to talk to you about
And thinking about us.
I don't care where we live,
Or even if we have to sleep on a couch,
As long as we can sleep together."
- [rachel] lisa wrote to israel several times,
Very lengthy letters, about missing him
And future plans they might make
And how wonderful life would be.
- [woman's voice] "so what do you want to do
When I come down for the weekend?
I would love to just lock ourselves in a room
For a few days!
But I do want to make plans for us
To do something with lea.
Until then, love lisa."
- [narrator] two days after lisa vanished,
Police find israel at his home in florida.
- [doc] when israel was interviewed,
It was evident that he had no knowledge
Or no part of lisa's disappearance.
- [rachel] the police determined
That this was not that serious of a relationship,
That he had been in florida
And had nothing to do with lisa
Since she had been there for christmas,
Other than receiving her letters.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] back in virginia, the sheriff's department
Interviews the gaudenzis' basement tenant.
- [rachel] the basement tenant was there
The last evening that lawrence and lisa were together
In the home.
The basement tenant backed lawrence's story up,
That they were, indeed, home together,
And that lawrence had left with lisa
To take her to officer training school.
The sheriff's department
Accepted the basement tenant's word
And viewed it more as a missing persons case
Than something that needed further investigating.
- [narrator] lisa's family fears
This might be more than a missing persons case.
Neighbors aren't so sure.
(gentle music)
- [rachel] when this case first began,
It was really more about the community
Wrapping itself around lawrence,
Who was the victim of this woman
Who ran off and broke his heart
And left him as a single parent.
- [narrator] news of lisa's disappearance
Quickly reaches her first husband, jim.
- [tony] two days after lisa disappeared,
Jim burdette comes to caroline county
To visit with lawrence.
Lawrence made it clear to jim burdette
That he believed
That lisa was going to take their daughter shelby with her,
Like she had done taking lea from jim burdette.
- [rachel] I think that lawrence and jim burdette
Established some kind of bond
Over their shared dismay
Of having a broken relationship with lisa marto.
- [nancy] those two go to court
For custody of the girls,
And we hired an attorney.
(gentle music)
We fought for both girls,
And we got actual physical custody of lea
And only phone visitation with shelby.
That's what we wind up with.
We were just amazed that this was happening.
- [narrator] lawrence starts over
With his daughter shelby, and without lisa.
Meanwhile, the search for the missing mom stalls.
- [rachel] joe and nancy marto
Called that sheriff's department quite a bit
And begged and begged and begged them to investigate.
And joe and nancy marto
Were really met with a brick wall.
(gentle music)
- [nancy] the sheriff's department in caroline county
Told us there's not much they can do.
She's over 18.
She can do what she wants.
We talked a lot.
She's done this before.
Well, yeah, she did it before,
But everybody knew where she was.
It wasn't like she disappeared off the face of the earth.
- [tony] joe marto was mounting a campaign,
Hired his own private investigator,
Posted signs all over caroline county,
All near the bus station in richmond.
"have you seen this woman?"
He was actively trying to investigate the matter
And was very frustrated
That the sheriff's office wasn't doing anything.
- [nancy] we wanted to know something.
It just wasn't moving fast enough.
We weren't getting any answers
From the sheriff's department.
The private investigator,
He put up "missing" pictures of her.
They talked to different neighbors.
The private investigator
Said that the house should be searched,
But they don't have enough probable cause.
The grounds should be searched,
But they don't have enough probable cause.
We never became complacent about it.
At night, we'd go to sleep,
We'd have a pen and paper on our nightstand
In case we thought of something
In the middle of the night.
It just never left.
It never went away.
(gentle music)
- [rachel] she would have never run off
And abandoned those two girls.
- [tad] the army ended up dishonorably discharging lisa
Because she didn't show up for training.
And that can be an example of the police saying,
"well, the army is treating it
As if she didn't show up.
So how do we know what really happened in this case?"
- [narrator] soon, there's more bad news for the martos.
(phone calling)
- [nancy] we tried calling lawrence to talk to him
And he changed his phone number.
- [automated voice] the number you have reached
Is not in service.
- [nancy] changed the phone number,
Changed the name on the account.
That's when the ball started to roll.
- [rachel] joe and nancy marto pushed so hard
That the sheriff's department finally conceded
And said they would bring lawrence gaudenzi
In for a polygraph test.
They contacted lawrence gaudenzi, who said,
"no problem. I will come in for a polygraph test."
They scheduled it.
- At first, he agreed.
He didn't show up.
His excuse was he was sick.
What ended up occurring is he left town.
Nobody knew where he went.
No forwarding address.
- [nancy] he disappeared off the face of the earth
And took our granddaughter with him.
(dramatic music)
(gentle music)
- [rachel] caroline county is a very rural small area
With a small police department,
And they just did not have the resources to investigate
And now look for lawrence and shelby.
So they decided, ultimately, to turn it over
To the state police.
(dramatic music)
- [rachel] there was enough information
To take a fresh look at this case.
Joe and nancy marto
Had established a really good relationship
With the detectives who were investigating this case.
They took joe and nancy very seriously,
And they really began investigating from scratch.
- [tony] the state police,
In investigating the disappearance of lisa gaudenzi,
Found that a lot of what lawrence was saying
In his original version,
About dropping her off the bus station,
Didn't make sense.
- [narrator] when lisa disappeared,
Investigators didn't focus on lawrence or his story.
Now that he's also vanished,
They take a second look.
- [tony] he dropped her off at a bus station in richmond
To take a bus to fort lee.
The problem with that story is
It's a 45-minute drive
From where lawrence was living
To the bus station in richmond.
It was only another 30 minutes to fort lee.
Why would you drive someone 45 minutes to a bus station
To take a half-hour bus trip?
- [narrator] state police are determined
To question the elusive lawrence gaudenzi
And find his missing daughter shelby.
(dramatic music)
- [rachel] the state police made a deal
With a news station in richmond to run this story
And to show a picture of lawrence gaudenzi
And ask the public for their assistance with any leads.
They almost immediately got a tip,
And the tipster who called
Said that they definitely recognized this person,
But that was not lawrence gaudenzi.
They knew him as randy evans.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] randy evans is a local man
Who lives on the streets.
Police find him at a shopping center.
- [doc] the agents said, "are you lawrence gaudenzi?"
He said, "no. My name is randy lee evans."
- [tony] he had a beard
That looked very much like randy evans'.
He had a brace on his hand,
Just like randy evans had always had.
Lawrence has a tattoo,
A very distinctive tattoo on his chest.
And he asked this man he's talking to,
"can you take your shirt off
So I can see if you have any tattoos?"
And sure enough, there's the tattoo
That lawrence gaudenzi had.
This was lawrence gaudenzi posing as randy evans.
- [doc] lawrence's story was that he gave randy evans a car.
I think it was a chevelle or maybe a mustang,
And $10,000 for his identification.
That's how he got all of this information on randy evans.
You know, it's kind of funny
That randy evans was never seen again either.
He's gone.
(dramatic music)
- [rachel] it became clear
That lawrence had established a new life
And a new identity for himself.
Lawrence gaudenzi told the police
That he had become randy evans
Because he thought joe marto had put a hit out on him.
When joe and nancy marto were told
That lawrence gaudenzi
Was informing police and investigators
That they had put a hit out on him,
They laughed and found it utterly ridiculous.
- [nancy] lawrence was nuts.
We were just amazed that this was happening.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] police arrest a now-remarried lawrence gaudenzi
For identity theft and for violating his probation
On a weapons charge.
- [nancy] when we heard that he started a new life
And he had a new wife,
We were livid.
Absolutely livid.
I got on the computer.
I pulled up all this information.
We got a marriage license on him,
Under the name of randy lee evans.
He married linda may.
- [narrator] police also wanna know
About his four-year-old daughter, shelby.
- He changed shelby's name to logan evans,
And the three of them were living not that far away
From where he left.
About one county over in rockingham county.
- My name is logan derenzo,
And I am the daughter of lisa and lawrence.
(dramatic music)
When my dad went to jail,
Linda may sat me down and said,
"I'm not your birth mother.
Your birth mother is lisa marto."
It wasn't weird for me to find out
Linda may was not my birth mother.
I didn't look like her.
I didn't act like her.
It kind of made me love her more
Because she chose to love me.
I was really confused.
I didn't understand how lisa could have left me.
I didn't like her as a person.
I hated her for abandoning me,
'cause that's all I knew.
When linda may told me all of this,
She definitely said it in a way
That she knew what was going on,
But she didn't really wanna tell me,
And it was very scary to her.
She seemed scared as she's telling me all of this.
- [rachel] lawrence gaudenzi
Could be very charming and cooperative
And present himself as a very quiet, pious family man.
But there was definitely another side to lawrence gaudenzi.
(dramatic music)
(gentle music)
- [doc] lawrence's new wife was interviewed
By state police agents
And was asked what she knew about lisa's disappearance.
She related to them
That lawrence had told her
That she had run off with somebody else.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] as linda may and logan
Detailed their life with lawrence,
A disturbing picture emerges.
- [logan] from day to day,
You never knew what kind of mood
My dad was going to be in.
He had a temper that is second to none.
When I was in second grade,
I cut my hair to my ears
Because that's the way I wanted it.
When I came home, my dad completely lost it.
He tried to tear down the bedroom door.
I loved the way I looked.
I thought it was fun.
And for him to just completely break me down over it
Killed me.
- [narrator] patterns of lawrence's behavior
Extend back to his previous marriage to lisa.
- [rachel] shortly before the actual wedding ceremony,
Nancy marto and lisa were together,
And nancy saw that lisa had some significant bruises
On her legs.
- [nancy] I said to her, "if lawrence is beatin' on you,
You and the two girls pack your bags
And you come home with joe and I."
And she said, "oh no, lawrence wouldn't allow it."
We didn't know how bad it was.
(gentle music)
- [narrator] lawrence gaudenzi pleads guilty
To forgery and is sentenced to two years in prison.
He's released in 2004.
Police can't charge lawrence
In connection to lisa's disappearance.
With no new leads or evidence,
The case of the missing mom goes as cold
As an old virginia coal mine.
(dramatic music)
- Going through those years,
Not knowing what happened, was hard.
Her birthday wasn't easy for joe,
But we trudged through.
A lot of crying.
A lot of upset.
I put a website up for lisa.
I did an interview on the internet.
We wrote to john walsh,
America's most wanted, numerous times.
The same letter came back.
They didn't wanna pick it up.
We had a psychic from new jersey.
I even wrote to the president of the united states
At the time, asking for his help.
We left no stone unturned.
We knew lisa was dead.
We knew lawrence killed her.
(gentle music)
- [doc] we had no evidence, no forensics, nothing.
Nobody wanted to tackle anything
Until spencer got elected.
(gentle music)
- I was the elected commonwealths attorney
Of caroline county,
Beginning on January 1, 2008.
I had a lot on my plate.
I was new to the job.
I got a phone call from a man named joe marto.
I am a believer that a good prosecutor
Will not shy away from tough cases.
We set up a meeting with joe marto and his wife,
And by the time that meeting was over,
I was convinced that this was a case
That I was interested in having investigated and prosecuted.
(dramatic music)
- [tad] it seems highly unlikely
That a woman about to embark on a career in the military
Is going to leave her husband,
Without a divorce, for another man,
Going to leave two children behind,
Is going to basically give up what is
Sort of a lifelong dream,
To just disappear.
- [doc] what I found in my investigation
Was that lisa was a highly-intelligent young lady.
She wanted to better herself,
And we knew something was wrong.
- [t.C.] she hasn't renewed her driver's license.
She hasn't renewed her insurance.
She hasn't done anything else
That normal people do in the daily life.
None of that occurred. It just stopped.
Sometimes nothing is something.
(dramatic music)
- [nancy] lisa just didn't disappear,
Fall off the face of the earth.
Her life revolved around those two little girls.
Lisa had a plan,
And the plan wasn't to disappear.
(dramatic music)
- [tad] this is not someone who is probably missing.
This is someone who was murdered.
(dramatic music)
(gentle music)
- [tony] everything about lisa's life stopped.
Looks like we may have the facts
To be able to prove a murder here.
(dramatic music)
- [tad] when police and prosecutors don't have a body,
They don't have any information.
So police and prosecutors
Then have to rely on other types of evidence.
- [tony] they came up with a team of five investigators
And they fanned out.
They went to georgia, south carolina,
Florida, maine,
Texas, virginia,
And re-interviewed everybody,
And heard wildly different versions
Of what lawrence had told them
Had happened to lisa.
Lawrence said lisa had run off
With a truck driver from indiana.
In another version,
Lawrence said that she had run off
With a man in florida.
- [doc] the only thing that we had
Was a history of lawrence's lies.
The lies that he had told over the years
About what happened to lisa.
We've got an uphill battle here.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] agents in florida
Want to talk to lisa's first husband,
Jim burdette, who's now homeless.
- [t.C.] I traveled to the last known area
That jim burdette could have been at.
We went to the drive-through mcdonald's
And got him a meal
And went back to the sheriff's office.
We sit there in a conference room.
He has this briefcase.
I am so curious of what's in that briefcase.
Why would this homeless man
Be carrying around a briefcase
In 104 degrees on a road in the middle of nowhere?
So I open it up.
What do I find?
I find a plethora of tape.
(dramatic music)
- [tony] jim burdette recorded his conversations
With anybody that had anything to do with lisa,
Hoping there might be something in there
That he could use in his custody battle.
One of 'em was a cassette
Of lawrence talking to jim burdette
Two days after lisa disappeared.
And it's fascinating.
Lawrence is explaining, yet again,
Another version of what happened.
"she didn't wanna stay with me anymore.
She wanted to go to fort lee."
You can hear him trying his stories out.
You can hear him trying to dig information
Out of jim burdette that he can use.
It was a critical piece of evidence in the case.
When you have this audiotape of lawrence gaudenzi's voice
In January of 1995, talking about it,
You can't argue with that.
- [narrator] looking to bolster their case,
Investigators interview diane,
Who used to babysit the gaudenzis' daughter shelby
Back in virginia.
Lisa and lawrence called diane to babysit
The weekend before lisa was supposed to report to fort lee.
- [t.C.] lawrence was excited for her to come home.
So they took shelby over to the babysitter.
During that time, diane and lisa have a conversation,
And lisa tells her
That she wants to get a divorce from lawrence.
- [tony] I believe
That lawrence heard lisa tell the babysitter, diane,
That she was going to leave lawrence,
That lawrence was afraid
That lisa was going to take shelby away from him,
Just like she had taken lea away from jim burdette.
- [tad] we have a classic triggering event.
He's going to lose control of his wife,
But more importantly,
He's going to lose control
Over the most important thing in his life,
Which is his daughter.
- [t.C.] you start putting circumstances together,
And it all starts going down the same road,
That lawrence, more than likely,
Killed lisa.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] with a possible motive established,
They look for evidence
At the home lawrence and lisa once shared.
- [t.C.] I go in the closet door,
And I notice the drywall.
There's been some type of work done there.
I had pulled the carpet up,
And there was just a gigantic red stain.
It looked like blood.
So I conducted a luminol.
It looked like the biggest blue light you've ever seen.
I swabbed it.
We brought it to a lab.
They said, "we can't say it's blood.
But what we can tell you
Is there's a whole lot of clorox there."
(dramatic music)
- [doc] agent collins goes down to georgia
And locates the downstairs tenant
That was living in the basement
At the time of lisa's disappearance.
- [tony] early on, they did interview the basement tenant.
The woman who lived in the basement
Essentially said that she hadn't seen anything unusual.
- [t.C.] they say people's memories fade.
That's true.
But if it's a event that occurred in their life
That's very dramatic,
They remember details for years and years and years.
So we were looking to pull out those details.
(dramatic music)
- [t.C.] she's sitting on the couch.
She has her head down,
And she starts to rock.
It gets to the point
Where she is rocking almost uncontrollably.
And I said, "what's wrong?"
She said, "I'm afraid
That lawrence will come and try to kill me."
(dramatic music)
(gentle music)
- [tony] I was at home, taking a shower.
The phone rings, and I look,
And I see that it's t.C. Collins.
So I answer it.
I'll never forget t.C. Saying, "I've got the smoking gun."
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] lawrence gaudenzi's former tenant
Tells agent collins about the night before lisa vanished.
(dramatic music)
- [t.C.] she says that the ground was frozen.
It was,
Been cold for several days.
She was out there smoking a cigarette.
Lawrence didn't know
That she had seen him come out of the top floor deck
And carrying a big green bag
That he could hardly carry.
He went out for about 10 minutes into the woods
And came back and didn't have the bag with him.
- [narrator] the tenant says lawrence left the house
In a hurry.
Once he was gone,
She went inside and noticed a trail of dirt
Leading to a bedroom upstairs.
- [t.C.] she had a friend with her at the time.
They come in the bedroom
And they see all of lisa's military gear,
All laid out.
They walk into the bathroom
And all they see is a bunch of blood.
They are scared to death.
So they lock the door and go back downstairs.
She was still so petrified, all these years later.
- [doc] she was afraid of lawrence.
I don't know what he told her,
But I do know that this fear was real,
And that's why she hadn't come forward before.
- [tony] this is the part that we needed.
And I remember thinking,
"that pretty much seals this case."
(phone ringing)
- [nancy] it was around 1:00 in the afternoon
And the phone rings,
And I looked at the clock,
And I says - my intuition -
I said, "it's spencer."
And sure enough, it was.
"nancy, we just arrested lawrence
For the murder of lisa."
(nancy sighs)
I jumped up and down.
I was so happy
That we would have some type of closure to this.
- [t.C.] we decided to indict him for murder.
And the police went and arrested him.
- He was in shackles
And we sat right there and we looked right...
He seen us, he didn't know what to do.
He knew, we wanted him to know,
It was us that was involved and brought him down.
(dramatic music)
- [rachel] the caroline county prosecutor
Had a tremendous amount of circumstantial evidence.
- [narrator] jim burdette's tapes
And the basement tenant's eyewitness
Account proved damning.
Just two days into the trial,
Lawrence pleads guilty to second-degree murder
And is sentenced to 25 years in prison.
The mystery surrounding the disappearance of the drifter,
Randy evans, remains an open investigation.
- Joe and I were relieved
That lawrence finally was found guilty.
We weren't happy
That we didn't know where lisa's remains were.
- [tony] we still wanted to know, "what happened to lisa?
What happened to her body?"
So doc lyons and t.C. Collins
Went to see lawrence in prison and said,
"look, if you can tell us where lisa's body is,
We might be able to convince the prosecutor
To agree to a sentence reduction."
What lawrence said happened
Was that he and lisa had been arguing
At the top of the steps
And that he had grabbed lisa.
She pulled away from him,
And fell down the steps and broke her neck.
He was afraid he would be charged with murder,
And so he just decided instead
To just get rid of the body
And pretend that she had gone missing.
- [logan] I do not believe that lisa was killed
The way lawrence likes to paint the pretty picture of,
"it was an accident."
I've seen my dad angry,
And I just don't believe it.
(dramatic music)
- [doc] well, he had told us
That when he dropped her off in this field,
He put her in a 50-gallon drum with muriatic acid.
- [tv reporter] after 15 years,
The remains of lisa gaudenzi have finally been found.
Just one year into his 25-year jail sentence,
Lawrence gaudenzi is talking for the first time,
Leading police here to spotsylvania county.
(dramatic music)
- [doc] so we pull down in this field,
Where we find what looks like a lot of synthetic material
That comes out of a sleeping bag.
(camera shutter clicks)
- [t.C.] I look off to the right,
And literally, there is three bottles of muriatic acid
That's been there for 15, 20 years.
- [narrator] not far from the acid bottles,
Investigators find something telling.
(camera shutter clicks)
- [tony] there was lisa marto's dental bridge.
And it's the only human remains of lisa that there are.
But they were at least able to find some remains,
And give the family some closure.
- We have done the best we could to provide them,
"at least we know
Where the resting place of their daughter is."
- [tv reporter] state police say lawrence gaudenzi
Had hoped his cooperation
Would help reduce his 25-year jail sentence.
But it won't.
(gentle music)
- [nancy] we had a memorial
At the military cemetery and they had gun salute,
They had a flyover,
They had a minister there.
Beautiful service. Absolutely beautiful.
We were happy that we got the partial.
We were happy that we were able to put it to a headstone.
We lobbied the army
To change her name back to her maiden name.
(gentle music)
- We were free.
I lived with a murderer for 13 years.
I will never have the relationship
I should have with my sister,
Of growing up and driving her crazy
And all of the things.
It definitely changed everything.
(gentle music)
- [nancy] through the whole process,
We grieved a lot.
Not just when it was over.
This was a big part of our life every day.
Nobody should have to go through this.